GLOSS at Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy

GLOSS is the Open Source Community at SASTRA Univerisity, Thanjavur, INDIA. GLOSS works towards bringing awareness about Open Source technologies amongst the students and to collaborate with the other open source communities around the globe in order to contribute to the open source technologies.

GLOSS conducts many seminars and workshops every month in which many interested students of SASTRA University learn about various open source products and exchange knowledge and ideas.

GLOSS enjoys support of more than 200 undergraduate and graduate students of SASTRA University who are its full time members and is one of the most active communities at SASTRA. Sun Microsystems Inc. sponsors GLOSS and it is headed by the Campus Ambassador of Sun Microsystems at SASTRA University.

History

GLOSS started as a GNU/Linux User Group in SASTRA University in the year 2004 but soon the GLUG died out. GLOSS was reinstalled as a open source enthusiasts' club in the year 2005-2006. Mission of GLOSS is to become the largest student body working towards contributing to Open Source and bring the power of computing to each and all.

GLOSS was initially an acronym for GNU/Linux and Open Source at SASTRA, but on 13th April 2008 it was officially decided to drop this acronym and call GLOSS as GLOSS where it has no expanded meaning. This was done because members agreed to the point that GNU/Linux and SASTRA in the name imposed technological and geographical distinction and limitations on the community.

Importance of GLOSS

GLOSS is one of the most active open source communities in South India and has worked towards educating students in open source tools. In past one year alone GLOSS has conducted many tech talks and seminars which have been attended by many students [http://blogs.sun.com/krabhishek Blogs on seminars and tech talks conducted by GLOSS can be read at this blog.] . Recognizing the contribution of GLOSS in the area of open source awareness and education, the founding coordinator of GLOSS Mr. Kumar Abhishek was invited to attend the Worldwide Education and Research Conference 2008 held at San Francisco in Feb 2008. [ [http://blogs.sun.com/wwerc08] Worldwide Education and Research Conference blog at blogs.sun.com] GLOSS, which is still growing, soon expects to become the largest student powered open source community in India.

External links

* [http://groups.google.com/group/gloss-sastra GLOSS Discussion Forum]
* [http://blogs.sun.com/gloss GLOSS official blog at blogs.sun.com]
* [http://blogs.sun.com/KrAbhishek Kumar Abhishek's Blog]
* [http://www.sastra.edu SASTRA University Website]